The Salt Range: Pakistan's unique field museum of ... - Paleopolis

Bandarkas Gypsum Member contains marland huge deposits of crystalline and noncrystallinegypsum (Fig. 5). The Sahwal MarlMember contains marl along with 8-10 feetthick seams of rock salt. At the top of thismember in the Khewra area, an igneous volcanicbody is exposed known as ‘Khewrite', whichresembles an igneous body that occurs with thePre-Cambrian Harmuz Salt of Iran. The sharpcontact between the Salt Range Formation andthe overlying Cambrian Khewra Sandstone(Figs. 2 & 6) can also be observed in the gorge.Carnets de Géologie / Notebooks on Geology – Book 2009/03 (CG2009_B03), Chapter 6PALEOZOIC ROCKSThe Paleozoic rocks exposed in the the SaltRange are of Cambrian and Permian age, withno strata representing the Ordovician toCarboniferous systems. The Cambrian sequencecomprises four formations:Figure 9: Salt pseudomorphs in the BaghanwalaFormation.4- Baghanwala Formation3- Jutana Formation2- Kussak Formation1- Khewra SandstoneFigure 10: The Permian Warchha Sandstoneoverlying the Dandot Formation exposed along theKhewra-Choa Saidan Shah road.Figure 7: Roadside geology showing the contactbetween the Baghanwala and Tobra Formations inroad cuts.Figure 8: Contact between Baghanwala Formation(with salt pseudomorphs) and the overlying Permianglacial Tobra Formation.These Cambrian formations contain (apartfrom other fossils) a wealth of trace fossils,including trails of trilobites and worm tracks.The Khewera Sandstone shows honeycombweathering, cross-bedding and interaformationalfolds. The Baghanwala Formation(Figs. 7-8), which contains salt pseudo-Figure 11: Permian Amb Formation, Pail Area.68

Carnets de Géologie / Notebooks on Geology – Book 2009/03 (CG2009_B03), Chapter 6morphs (Fig. 9), is well exposed along theroadside and displays a sharp unconformableupper contact with the overlying Permian glacialdeposits.alternating glacial and stream (ice melt water)deposits. The other formations of the group, theDandot Formation and Warchha Sandstone, arealso well exposed along the Khewra-ChoaSaidan Shah road with a sharp contact betweenthem (Fig. 10).Figure 12: Fusulinids beds the Amb Formation, PailArea.Figure 15: Middle Productus Limestone in NammalGorge.Figure 13: Fusulinids in the Amb Formation, PailArea.Figure 16: Productus exposed in the limestone inNammal Gorge.Figure 14: A view of Nammal Gorge.The Permian strata of the Salt Range areassigned to two groups, the Nilawan Group andthe Zaluch Group. The oldest formation of thePermian, the Tobra Formation of the NilawanGroup, is a non-marine deposit that showsdifferent facies across the region. In the easternSalt Range, it is tillitic (glacially deposited),grading into a marine sandstone; in the centralSalt Range it incorporates lacustrine deposits;in the western Salt Range and Trans Indusranges it displays a complex facies ofIn the central Salt Range near Pail the AmbFormation, the youngest formation of theZaluch Group, is very well exposed along theroadside, where it contains numerous fusulinidbearingbeds (Figs. 11-13). Further west in theNammal Gorge (Fig. 14), the Wargal Formation(formerly known as the Middle ProductusLimestone) and the Chhidru Formation (formerlyknown as the Upper ProductusLimestone) are exposed, and bear abundantspecimens of Productus and other brachiopods(Figs. 15-16). The Permian rocks have a sharpupper contact with Triassic rocks, marking aparaconformity. The Permian rocks aredistinguished by the presence of Productus,whereas the Triassic rocks contains Ceratites.MESOZOIC ROCKSThe Triassic Mianwali Formation is very wellexposed in the Nammal Gorge as well as in theDhak Pass, where beautiful Ceratites specimenscan be found along the roadside (Figs. 17-19).The lower contact of the Mianwali Formation69

The non-marine Miocene-Pliocene rocksknown as the Lower and Upper Siwaliks (Figs.26-28) are famous for their vertebrate faunaincluding mammals (among which is the largestmammal), birds and reptiles.Carnets de Géologie / Notebooks on Geology – Book 2009/03 (CG2009_B03), Chapter 6Figure 25: The Choegali Formation of Eocene agecontains numerous Nummulites, shown in this image.Figure 22: The Paleogene Lockhart Limestoneexposed along a road side near Nammal Gorge.Figure 26: The Lower and Upper Siwaliks, nonmarineMiocene-Pliocene rocks, occur in the SaltRange.Figure 23: Nodular foraminiferal limestone beds inthe Lockhart Limestone.Figure 27: Differential weathering and badlandsexposures in the Siwaliks.Figure 24: Sakesar Limestone.71

Carnets de Géologie / Notebooks on Geology – Book 2009/03 (CG2009_B03), Chapter 6Figure 28: Vertebrate fossils are well preserved andabundant at localities in the Siwaliks.4. RecommendationsThe Salt Range contains a number of uniquefossil occurrences and many occurrences thatare useful in research and education. It shouldbe considered carefully by local paleontologistsfor the preservation and conservation of theseresources. Those sites (of any geographicextent) that are deemed worthy of preservationshould be designated a potential PaleoPark andlocal efforts to preserve them should ensue.This will require significant efforts because ofthe numerous sites, and the size andpaleontological fame of the Salt Range.AcknowledgementsThe author is grateful to Prof. Jere H. LIPPSfor encouragement, guidance and editing, andto Prof. Richard J. ALDRIDGE for editing the text.Bibliographic referencesAFZAL J. (1997, unpublished).- Foraminiferalbiostratigraphy and paleoenvironments ofthe Patala and Nammal formations at thePaleocene-Eocene boundary in the SaltRange and Surgar Range, Pakistan.- Ph.D.Thesis, Punjab University, Lahore, 155 p.AFZAL J. & BUTT A.A. (2000).- Lower Tertiaryplanktonic biostratigraphy of the Salt Range,Northern Pakistan.- Neues Jahrbuch fürGeologie und Paläontologie, Monatshefte,Stuttgart, Heft 12, p. 721-747.AFZAL J. & DANIELS C.H. von (1991).-Foraminiferal biostratigraphy and paleoenvironmentalinterpretation of the Paleocene–EocenePatala and Nammal formationsKhairabad East, Western Salt Range.-Pakistan Journal of Hydrocarbon Research,Islamabad, vol. 3, n° 2, p. 61-79.ASHRAF M. & BHATTI M. (1991, unpublished).-Nannofossil biostratigraphy of the Patala andNammal Formations of Khairabad East,Western Salt Range, Pakistan.- HydrocarbonDevelopment Institute of Pakistan (HDIP),unpublished report.ASRARULLAH P. (1967).- Geology of the KhewraDome.- Proceedings of the 18th and 19thcombined session of All Pakistan ScienceConference, University of Sind, Hyderabad,Part-III, Abstracts, F3-F4.BALME B.E. (1970).- Palynology of Permian andTriassic strata in the Salt Range and SurgharRange, West Pakistan. In: KUMMEL B. &TEICHERT C. (eds.), Stratigraphic boundaryproblems: Permian and Triassic of WestPakistan.- University of Kansas, SpecialPublication, Lawrence, n° 4, p. 305-453.CHEEMA M.R. (1974).- Bauxite and clay depositsof a part of Katha-Arara area, KhushabTehsil, Sargodha Dist. Punjab, WestPakistan.- Pakistan Geological Survey,Information Release, Quetta, n° 76, 21 p.COLBERT E.H. (1935).- Siwalik (India) mammalsin the American Museum of Natural History.-Transactions of the American PhilosophicalSociety, Philadelphia, (new ser.), vol. XXVI,401 p.DAVIES L.M. & PINFOLD E.S. (1937).- The Eocenebeds of Punjab Salt Range.- Memoirs of theGeological Survey of India, PalæontologiaIndica, Calcutta, (new ser.), vol. 24, 79 p.FATIMI A.N. (1973).- Lithostratigraphic units ofKohat-Potwar Province, Indus basin.- GeologicalSurvey of Pakistan, Memoirs, Quetta,vol. 10, 80 p.GEE E.R. (1935).- The saline series of northwesternIndia.- Current Science, Bangalore,vol. II, p. 460-463.GEE E.R. (1945).- The age of saline series of thePunjab and Kohat.- Proceedings of the NationalAcademy of Sciences of India, Calcutta,(Section B), vol. 14, n° 6, p. 269-312.GRANT R.E. (1966).- Late Permian trilobites fromthe Salt Range, West Pakistan.- Palaeontology,Oxford, vol. 9, Part 1, p. 64-73.HAQUE A.F.M. (1956).- The smaller foraminiferaof the Ranikot and Laki of the NammalGorge, Salt Range.- Geological Survey ofPakistan, Memoirs, Quetta, vol. 1, 300 p.KUMMEL B. & TEICHERT C. (1966).- Relationsbetween the Permian and Triassic formationsin the Salt Range and Trans-Indus ranges,West Pakistan.- Neues Jahrbuch für Geologieund Paläontologie, Abhandlungen, Stuttgart,Band 125, p. 297-333.KUMMEL B. & TEICHERT C. (1970).- Stratigraphyand paleontology of the Permian-Triassicboundary beds, Salt range and trans-Indusranges, West Pakistan. In: KUMMEL B. &TEICHERT C. (eds.), Stratigraphic boundaryproblems: Permian and Triassic of WestPakistan.- University of Kansas, SpecialPublication, Lawrence, n° 4, p. 1-110.PASCOE E.H. (1919).- The early history of theIndus, Brahmaputra, and Ganges.- QuarterlyJournal of the Geological Society, London,vol. 75, n° 1-4, p. 138–155.SAMEENI S.J. (1997, unpublished).- Biostratigraphyof the Eocene succession of the SaltRange, Northern Pakistan.- Ph.D. Thesis,Punjab University, Lahore, 64 p.SAMEENI S.J. & BUTT A.A. (1996).- Use of alveolinidsfor the recognition of the Paleocene-Eocene boundary in the Salt Range,Northern Pakistan.- In: DROBNE K., GORIČAN72

Carnets de Géologie / Notebooks on Geology – Book 2009/03 (CG2009_B03), Chapter 6Š. & KOTNIK B. (eds.), International worshopPostojna '96'.The role of impact processes inthe geological and biological evolution of theplanet Earth.- Scientific Research CentreSAZU, Ljubljana, p. 70-73.SAMEENI S.J. & BUTT A.A. (2004).- Alveolinidbiostratigraphy of the Salt Range succession,Northern Pakistan.- Revue de Paléobiologie,Genève, vol. 23, n° 2, p. 505-527.SAMEENI S.J. & HOTTINGER L. (2003).- Elongateand larger alveolinids from Choregali Formation,Bhadrar area, Salt Range, Pakistan.-Pakistan Journal of Environmental Science,3, p. 16-23.SHAH S.M.I. (1977).- Stratigraphy of Pakistan.-Geological Survey of Pakistan, Memoirs,Quetta, vol. 12, 138 p.WAAGEN W. (1882-1885).- (Ser. XIII.) - SaltRange fossils. Productus limestone fossils.-Memoirs of the Geological Survey of India,Palæontologia Indica, Calcutta, vol. I, part 4,Brachiopoda, p. 329–770, 62 Pls.WAAGEN W. (1895).- (Ser. XIII.) - Salt Rangefossils. Fossils from Ceratite Formation.-Memoirs of the Geological Survey of India,Palæontologia Indica, Calcutta, (series XIII),vol. II, part I, Pisces-Ammonoidea, 324 p.,40 Pls.73